Aston Villa’s Championship play-off hopes were dealt a blow as they suffered a disappointing defeat.
Steve Bruce
The Villans went into the clash at Pride Park off the back of a five-match unbeaten run that had seen them threaten to start putting pressure on the top two in the second tier – but the Rams ensured that they stayed ahead of Villa as goals from Andi Weimann, formerly of Villa, and Johnny Russell gave Gary Rowett’s side the 2-0 victory.
Despite having Hogan and Agbonlahor available, Bruce decided to leave the pair on the bench until the second-half and instead start with attacking midfielder Josh Onomah leading the line – and after the defeat, the Villans boss admitted that he had probably made a mistake with that decision.
“Formations, systems, all the rest of it, I expected it to be better. You can have as many strikers on the pitch but if you keep making individual errors, like we did in the first half, it makes little difference.”
In fairness to Bruce, neither Agbonlahor or Hogan have been exactly prolific this season. Between the pair, they have made 20 Championship appearances – though many of them have come from the bench – and have contributed just one goal, which came from Agbonlahor back on the opening day of the season.
Onomah has outscored the pair with three strikes to his name, while Albert Adomah – who is the side’s top goalscorer this season with 10 goals to his name – was also on the pitch.
Nevertheless, it was a strange call, and it certainly did not pay off. And Bruce may perhaps be hoping that the defeat highlighted the Villans’ need to go out and strengthen their striker options during the January transfer window.
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